London 2012: Poll suggests participation has increased

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A BBC Radio 5 live poll has found that around one in five people have been inspired to play sport by the London Olympics.

One of the legacy targets of the 2012 Games was to increase the number of people playing sport around Britain.

Of those polled, 56% also felt there is too much media coverage of football and not enough of other sports.

Only 35% said they had noticed an increase in non-football stories since the Games ended almost six months ago.

On the issue of participation, there have been success stories, with cycling experiencing a notable increase.

Jarl Walsh, who is general manager of the National Cycling Centre in Manchester, said there had been a "significant spike" in the number of people using the site's facilities and revealed there was a "significant waiting list for everything we do".

British Cycling also said their membership was now at 62,500, an increase of 12,500 since Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France in July.

British Rowing has also seen a rise in demand, especially from people looking for a club on the 'club finder' section of the organisation's website.

Politicians have recently been accused of paying "lip service" to sport.

The last Labour government wanted two million people to become more active as result of the Games, although that later became a pledge to get one million people playing more sport.

Sport England announced in December that the number of people aged 16 to 19 playing sport had fallen. It also announced that it will give £493m to grassroots sports between 2013-17, up £54.7m. external-link

ComRes interviewed 1,009 British adults by telephone between 4 and 6 January, 2013. Full tables are available at www.comres.co.uk.external-link

Lord Coe, Sports Minister Hugh Robertson and a number of Olympians and Paralympians will join Victoria on her programme from 10:00 GMT on Thursday to discuss the poll's results.

BBC Radio 5 live listeners are also encouraged to enter the debate.

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47 comments

  • Comment posted by Lendwithcare, at 10:58 10 Jan 2013

    After the Olympics on a visit to Centre Parks I noticed that some my friend's kids had a crack at archery in addition to the usual swimming & badminton - result 2 of them have now found a club to give it a go - fantastic. Agree with others that BBC could stop chasing football >showcase hockey/volleyball/netball/badminton/kayaking etc at weekends or early evenings by moving some stuff to BBC3/4.

  • Comment posted by deleted, at 10:52 10 Jan 2013

    @#9 - Because I've seen quite a few of your posts.

  • Comment posted by deleted, at 10:35 10 Jan 2013

    Heard a young lad in the park shout 'I've won a gold medal' after beating his mate in a little race they had. Both were about 4. Made me smile as he'd obviously watched the Olympics. Hope he carries it on.

    I expect there will be more negative comments than positive like the one from the idiot @#1 - who's being a sheep?

    If it inspires some then great.

  • Comment posted by U15262197, at 15:17 10 Jan 2013

    Sick to the back teeth of hearing the word inspire in relation to the Olympics!!

  • Comment posted by GoFigure, at 14:35 10 Jan 2013

    It takes about 10 minutes to get 27 comments on a large number of football stories.

    It's taken over 4 hours to get to the same number with this post.

    Face facts folks, football is popular.

  • Comment posted by Lionslionslions, at 12:12 10 Jan 2013

    Its also inspired some awful TV programs - stand up Tom Daley

  • Comment posted by lewis, at 10:39 10 Jan 2013

    "Of those polled, 56% also felt there is too much media coverage of football and not enough of other sports"

    Yet 9 of the top 10 sports stories on the BBC today are football related, with the 1 being about a drug cheat cyclist?

  • Comment posted by U15039788, at 10:35 10 Jan 2013

    1.ChubbyPandas Its not a case of wanting to be inspired, people just are, simple fact, same with any big sporting event like the FA cup final, Wimbledon or the Ryder cup, more kids are outside playing football or tennis and Golf courses are packed, it stirs people into taking part in something, its not a case of just being sheep, people get excited by massive sporting events.

  • Comment posted by hainba, at 10:21 10 Jan 2013

    @1
    I'm past my peak as a cricketer (and I'm not sure I even had one) but I can still coach and mentor young people in the sport. That comes from loving sport for what it should be not what the media want it to be. The need for other sports to gain participants through self publicity needs the media also benefitted from 2012. BBC take note of the 56% who se football is overhyped!

  • Comment posted by Abdi, at 15:15 10 Jan 2013

    "56% also felt there is too much media coverage of football and not enough of other sports"

    Maybe because football is the most popular sport in the country (world) and by some distance. People forget that the origins of football and rugby are similar, both were essentially played by posh boys and were eventually codified at Cambridge. Football eventually gained mass popularity over rugby

  • Comment posted by U15569080, at 15:08 10 Jan 2013

    - 27
    For a country full of football fanatics it didn't seem that popular in the Olympics with plenty of unsold tickets and empty seats - probably because it is a lot to do with supporting/associating with a team more than watching good football being played I suppose. Lots of footballing posts on these boards are more banter/digs at the oppostion so it will never take long to rack loads up :-)

  • Comment posted by Jeff, at 13:27 10 Jan 2013

    I played darts for the first time in 10 years during the Summer

    I now know why

  • Comment posted by A R M Chair, at 11:59 10 Jan 2013

    Bring back Grandstand!!!

  • Comment posted by docblue, at 11:49 10 Jan 2013

    I had a comment removed from a post on Sunday pretty much agreeing with the 56% in this poll who said that there was too much football coverage in the media!! I am to notice that I am not alone. The BBC needs to take note as well, and concentrate more on the sports where UK competitors are actually world-class!!!

  • Comment posted by umpteenth_time_user save 606, at 11:06 10 Jan 2013

    @12 i never said i hated football, i follow it, frequently post on it and an looking forwrd to United winning the league and european double this season :)

    But i also follow many other sports and football gets too much coverage. It's by far the most controversal sport with the worst personalites, which generates headlines unfortunately.

  • Comment posted by A R M Chair, at 10:30 10 Jan 2013

    Where is the BBC's coverage of minority sport? THAT will inspire the 'legacy' we keep hearing about.

    Instead we see the sports pages of the BBC website filled up with non-stories of has been's moving their family London! I haven't ever seen a story other than football or a scandal in another major sport as the headline. Sadly, these days, kids won't find out about sport unless they see it first!

  • Comment posted by U15280055, at 21:05 10 Jan 2013

    Football being "popular" doesn't mean it's in any way a good thing. The Sun is the best-selling daily paper but you'd be hard pushed to call it quality journalism. All being "popular" proves is there are still a lot of plans who haven't noticed that worshipping someone who is on 250k a week and doesn't give a flying fig about the town they represent isn't really a good thing.

  • Comment posted by Moz, at 16:00 10 Jan 2013

    The BBC desperately needs a seperate sports channel (ala News and Childrens) so "other sports" are not hidden away just online or on the red button.

    And befor you bang on about people not wanting to watch "minority" sports remember the BBC is supposed to be a public interest broadcaster not pandering to the ratings.

  • Comment posted by colleen, at 15:25 10 Jan 2013

    Kids aren't introduced to a wide enough variety of sports in school because of league tables - they don't mesasure sporting achievement. So we end up watching rather than playing. And we watch what its most profitable for the TV to show us which depends on advertising. How much would advertisers pay for half time in the ladies netball? That's market forces for you - Capitalism it used to be called

  • Comment posted by U15568976, at 13:25 10 Jan 2013

    The basic problem is that the media always interview medal winners or people like Seb Coe, there is no involvement with the other Olympians and the majority of sports largely go unreported. Involve all the Olympians and all the sports. Or is it that the invitations only follow the funded sports only. The unfunded Rhythmic Gymnastics Group would be a good place to start when you are seeking views.

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